Interacting with the ChemSpider Mobile app

ChemSpider Mobile for iOS version 1.0.1 has been released (see AppStore, MMI, SciMobileWiki). The new version allows the app to be used to open chemical structures from arbitrary sources, which includes email attachments, web downloads, and other apps which implement the “Open with” functionality for chemical structure data:

This feature brings the ChemSpider Mobile app in line with a growing collection of chemistry apps, including the Mobile Molecular DataSheet (MMDS), MolSync, Reaction101, Yield101, Mobile Reagents and MolPrime, (see product page) that are capable of sending and/or receiving chemical data from one app to another, be it on the same device or via the Internet.

There are 3 main ways in which this functionality pops up in general use. If you are using Safari Mobile to navigate a website and stumble across a chemical structure (e.g. an MDL MOL file), an option similar to the following will be presented:

Similarly, if somebody sends you an email message with a structure attachment, it may look something like this:

Selecting ChemSpider as the destination launches the app, using the specified molecule as the starting point:

Pressing the Search button will initiate the search for the structure of cholesterol.

This functionality is not restricted to built-in iOS features like browsing and email. It is also available to any apps that choose to implement “Open with…” functionality. The Mobile Molecular DataSheet (MMDS) is one example of an app which provides this capability:

This capability is by no means limited to apps from Molecular Materials Informatics. It can be taken advantage of by anyone who implements some simple functionality that is provided by the iOS SDK, which is described in detail here.